wrote in message
...
They were showing on the news that transformers on poles were
exploding. Why do they explode? I know that shorting causes this, but
generally they are protected by fuses on the poles.


Fuses make nice fire balls. If the fault comes faster than the fuse can blow
then the transformer grenades. Which is generally REALLY spectacular.

wrote:

....
... Those
reporters are often pretty wreckless. ...

I say clueless...

wrote:
They were showing on the news that transformers on poles were
exploding. Why do they explode? I know that shorting causes this, but
generally they are protected by fuses on the poles.


The coolest thing I ever saw was in high school at football practice.
Our kicker was practicing field goals and the ball hit one of the live
wires on the poles. For whatever reason, the two hot wires on the pole
were close enough together that the football caused them to get close
enough to arc. As the wire started oscillating, there were sparks
flying between the wires from pole-to-pole. It was the most awesome
thing I have every seen. After it blew out the power on the adjacent
street, some redneck lady came out of her house across the street and
shouted something to the effect of "Whoever did that better turn them
damn lights back on". Yea right lady, like that highschool football
player is going to climb the pole and fix it.